St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-12-30
AMERICAS GRETNA GREEN.
Aberdeen, o.. Where 10000 Runaway
Couples Have Been Married.
SQUIRE BEASLEY'S BUSINESS
Bows of Thirteen United to Girls of
Eleven---How Irate Papas Are
Baffled.

MAYsvLLE, KY, Dec. 29.-The vii
lage of Aberdeen, o., directly opposite
this city, has become famous within the
last quarter of a century as the Gretna
Green of America. More couples are
married there in year than in many
large cities of the country. 1t is the
haven of runaway lovers from Ken
lucky, although couples go there from
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and even New
York. Aberdeen is pretty place of
about 800 inhabitants. 1t is situated on
the Ohio. sixty-one miles above Cincin,,
natl, and is reached by steamer and
ferry boat. The town is leading to-
baccO market. Runaway marriages
have become so frequent at Aberdeen
that the pe0Dle pay no attention to
them. There are sometimes six or
seven weddings a day. The vet
eran marrying squire is Massie
Beasley, who is now seventy-seven
years old. He has held his present Of
flee continuously for twenty years, and
is always reelected without opposition.
Every grade of society appears before
Squire BeaSley to have the hymeneal
knot tied He is good-hearted old fell
low, and if the pair have no money to
pay the fee, which is often the case, he
dismisses them with his blessing. Some
of the couples arrive in carriages and
are dressed in silks and broadclOth.
Others enter his office barefOoted and
in rags, but the squire never turns
them away, no matter how tOrlOrn or pit
liable their condition. He marrieS peO-
pie at the dead of night, when they are
in a hurry to escape the wrath of pur-
siing fathers or brothers.
Squire Beasley's Office has furnished
many sensations which never got into
the newspapers. On two or three Occa-
siOns the wedding has been harshly in
terrupted by the arrival of purSuerS just
in time to prevent the ceremony. The
age of applicants for his services makes
no difference to Mr.. BeaSley. He has
united boys of thirteen and girls of
eleven. but up to this time he has
never been involved in any trouble.
The oldest PAIR to enter upon matri-
mony before the marrying squire was
a man of eighty and woman of sew
enty-twO. 1t has been matter of won
der how mere children could be welded
without making the justice liable to fine
and imprisonment. 1t seems that
Beasley is a law unto himself. He asks
no questions, and aims to make every
body happy without regard to age or
color. Most of his patrons are from Ken
lucky, and the marriage laws of that
state are decidedly crude and indefinite.
Within the last five years West Virginia
has entmany of her young people to
Aberdeen TO be married. Squire Beas
ley has tied the knot for 4, 153 couples in
the sixteen years of his career in that
town. His predecessor, Squire Shelton,
who has Deen dead many years, married
5000 couples in his life. In thirty years
nearly 10000 pairs of lovers have been
made happy or miserable in Aberdeen.
Squire Beasley is youthful in spirits,
being a man of fine social qualities. His
office is at his reidence, twO-StOry
brick, Just on the outskirts of the town.
There, with his only son, Capt. Tom
Beasley, he keeps bachelors hall. The
room used for matrimonial purposes is
large and attractive. 1t contains an
Old-fashioned bookcase and table, cosy
arm chairs. bedStead and the 'Squire's
pet mocking bird. The experience of
Mr.. Beasley prove that people will un-
dergo almost any hardship to get mar
ried. The runawayS knock at his door
at all hours of the night in the worst of
weather. They come on horseback and
on foot, frequently being only few
IlluulcS diledu Vi dill lllluI1dtcU ldtHcIs
The records of the'squire's office show
that Louis county, Kentucky, sends the
most runawayS to Gretna Green, al
though nearly every county in that
state is well represented in his register.
Ohio couples are required to procure a
license, and in this way Mr.. Beasley
saves himself from being amenable to
the laws of that state.
Although Squire Beasley is a jovial
fellow, he is aggravatingly reticent
about his career as dispenser of matri-
mOnial bonds. He has refused repeat
edly to be interviewed on the subject
and will not have his picture taken.
The squire keeps his records. not in
book, but on slips of papers. He says
it is nObody's business who the people
are that come to him to get married, ,and
he will not reveal any of the many in
teresting secrets of which he is the
possessOr. A newspaper man offered
him 81, 600 for two of his pictures and an
interview, but he positively declined to
consider the proposition. Mr.. Beasley
has made several thousand dollars as
the result of his reputation as the marry
ing squire of America.